Caution & Truth
by Sapphire-Willow
Summary: A story in which OC, Angleic makes her troubles known and we find out that Draco might just have a heart. Complete for now.


**So hi! I don't have much to say, so I'll just say this before the story start starts; I own nothing but my OC for this story. Also, credit to the Harry Potter Wiki for random bits of information.**

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><p><strong>Caution &amp; Truth<strong>

Draco found her at the Clock Tower Courtyard sitting on one of the benches of the stone gazebo. Her legs were up close to her chest with her arms wrapped around them tightly. Her long dark auburn hair was out of its usual messy bun and was now the only thing that kept him from seeing her face. A beautiful sparkly navy blue dress cuddled her body and ended just above her knees, with a black cardigan and high-heels resting beside an open rectangle purse on the ground.

The girl was looking up at the night sky, probably admiring the tiny lights that blanketed the Earth, though you could never be too sure when it came to her. A cool breeze flew past them, ruffling their hair. If he wasn't so aware of his surroundings, he never would have guessed he had hidden behind a wall for almost two hours straight. She shivered, sniffed, then quietly sneezed, mumbling a complaint afterwards. Draco wanted to go over to her to see if she was okay. It was clear she wasn't, but for some reason he had to confirm his hunch.

The thing was, something was holding him back. It wasn't clear why he had this strange feeling. All he _did_ know was that the sensation had to be fought, starting by moving away from the stone in front of him. She began to hum a tune he had heard only once before, when walking the deserted halls of Hogwarts. He recalled discreetly trying to find the owner of the voice for months without a break through. The search was put on hold when the third term of his third year ended. Today was the last day of the school year and tonight they would go back home to their families.

Despite his animosity towards Hogwarts, Draco didn't want to leave. In his eyes his own home was just as bad. Growing up as a child was hard enough. Being taught to hate half-bloods and muggle-borns was expected of the Malfoys', but people never really understood how bad the punishments were. The age didn't matter or how wrong the doing was. Take cleaning his room for instance. If he were to leave a single fallen feather under the eagle owls cage on the floor, the punishment would result with a whack of the dreaded sliver snake-tipped cane. And it only got worse as he got older. The thought made his blood boil. Being here at Hogwarts made him feel that little bit safer.

"…once the time goes by…"

Her gentle mumbles brought him back to reality. The voice he had looked for was hiding in plain sight the whole time, hidden behind text books and a brave face. He couldn't believe it. Before Draco could stop himself, he stepped aside and began stepping forward until he was half away across the room. The steps were very faintly heard to his ears. At this point, small pebbles littered the stone surface threatening to give away his position. He had to stop and make the choice whether to keep going or cower back to the Slytherin Common Room.

Was it worth it? Coming all this way, and for what? A girl who probably hated him? What would he possibly get out of this? His pale grey eyes looked over towards the girl once more. Of course she was worth it. She was Angelic Radovic, the girl who amazed all. So, the cycle resumed. Confidence built up inside him with every footstep he took. As he got closer to her, however, he accidentally kicked a pebble. It sharply skidded to the right behind another bench, producing a_ skit, skit, skiting_ sound as it scraped the rough surface.

He immediately froze in an awkward pose. Arms were held in mid-swing, fingers apart in a crooked way, knees slightly bent, legs tense and his faced expressed a look that seemed to scream, 'WHAT DID I JUST DO?!'. His heart began to pump faster with his lungs working double time to keep up with the rest of the body. In out, in out, in out. Air went through the nose and out his mouth frantically. Calm down Malfoy, he thought, mentally scowling to himself.

Who knew this would get so intense? His muscles loosened and he stood up straight, gripping the folded tips of his open black suit jacket and flicked it forward so it straightened as well. He sighed feeling a bit recovered. A new feeling crept inside him. It told him something was missing. That's when he noticed something _was_ different. Another sniff caught his attention and he realized the humming had stopped. His eyes darted to the direction of the girl. She was still facing away with her head tilted up. Draco took another cautious step forward.

Laughter suddenly echoed down the nearby Covered Bridge, which connected the Clock Tower to the Clock Tower Courtyard. Angelic jumped in her place tearing her eyes away from the sky and, thankfully, glanced over her left shoulder and not her right. He looked back too. Two second year Hufflepuff girls slowly stumbled their way past the old bridges entrance clutching each other's arms, as they cackled widely and struggled to stay standing.

Draco and Angelic watched as the girls disappeared down the hill they approached. The wind blew furiously making them both shudder. Why was she out here? Surely there were places in the castle she could've gone instead. When his eyes focused back on Angelic, she was looking down at something on the ground. After a few minutes she took a breath and spoke.

"What do you want, Draco?"

There was no mistaking the troubled falter in her voice. _She must have looked back when I was distracted._ Well, there was no point in hanging back now. Slowly, he stalked his way over to her, still finding himself being cautious, though he didn't know what for. Whenever in Angelic's presence, he always felt as though he had to be careful, not wanting her to think too badly of him. Now was no exception. Still, he _did_ have a reputation to keep in mind. Realisation that his dreaded assumption was indeed correct took over when Draco approached her.

It only seemed right to stand a bit away from her just in case, and for good reason. The moment her hair couldn't hide her face any more, a pang of guilt hit him hard. Her small nose had gone red and around her eyes were red and puffy also. Thin streaks shimmered down her cheeks in the moons light. She looked miserable, irritated and exhausted. The rumours he heard from other students were true. All the name calling and false stories had finally gotten the better of her. Draco never thought he would see the day, but here they were. He felt sorry for her, not that he would ever say it out loud, though.

"Why do you call me Draco and not Malfoy like everyone else?" he mused.

"I asked first."

No one could say she took crap from anybody, well, at least she tried to make a stand. And she certainly had fierceness to her, that's for sure. Draco couldn't help but smile and chuckle lightly. It quickly faded at the thought of the question. What did he want? It was obvious she was distraught, and he wanted to help. But how could he? Would she let him? Questions were swarming in his head. A voice struggled to shout above them. Angelic, who hadn't moved a muscle, all of a sudden looked up and met his gaze.

If he felt bad before, this was a hundred times worse. Just look at those eyes! They were an intense icy blue. You could see the sorrow and suffering swimming in the trapped tears of the orbs. _Say something!_ the voice cried. But he wasn't listening. He couldn't. It was as if he was in a trance he didn't want to break free of. They stared into each other's eyes for a long time, until she looked away showing a look of disgust.

"Bet you came to gloat," she said flatly.

Confusion struck him at that comment. _Why would I need to gloat?_ All the stories and lies he had heard hadn't been started by him. Sure, Draco knew who did, and he may have laughed along with his gang, but he never intended on hurting her. _She doesn't think I started the rumours… does she?_ No. This was not the time to think about this. Automatically, Draco walked over and sat down next to her. She brought her legs down and shuffled over creating a reasonable gap between them.

"Actually, I came to see if you were alright. It's not everyday someone sees you like this, you know."

She shook her head, laughing darkly with not a hint of humour. "Alright, you came to see if I, the muggle-lover, was alright? Why would you even care?"

The question was simple, and she had every right to ask it. But again, the answer didn't come to mind. It was odd how he couldn't answer her questions, but he could answer anyone else's in a heartbeat. Could there be something wrong with him? The problem had started after he had overheard a conversation between Pansy and Angelic that most likely wasn't meant for him to hear. It was purely by accident, of course. No one can stop their ears from tuning in after waking up from a well-deserved rest, it just couldn't be done.

"I would expect something like this from one of Parkinson's _acquaintances_ – pretending to care just to see me finally crack – but not you, Draco, not you. It's amazing I lasted this long… Lies upon lies, stacks of altered stories shared around the entire school, name-calling and put downs. I honestly don't know how I did it. People don't understand how hard it is. You Purebloods get it so easy, while the rest of us are frowned upon. What sucks is that everyone knows me as that half-blood chick that was put in Slytherin by mistake. The sick part is that I actually believe it. Why can't I just run away and start over? Just pack my bags and head to Italy. That's where I belong, not here, I've never belonged here. Voglio solo andare a casa."

Draco listened intently as she ranted. Half way through the speech, she got up and paced back and forth as if to distract her of his presence, but soon gave up and sat back down. Now she sighed, arms hugging her waist. How could someone be so broken? Without thinking, he slid across the bench and wrapped his arms around her. Out of instinct, it seemed, she turned to him and buried her face in his chest, breaking out into a sob. There was nothing for him to say, or nothing that would help the situation anyway.

As he thought so, Draco tightened his hold on her a bit and he hoped it gave off the impression of comfort. What was that Muggle saying? Actions speak louder than words? If so, at least that's one thing Muggles' got right. Draco gently rubbed an endless circle on her back that in time helped soothe her. Angelic managed to stop herself from crying after a while. When she did, she began to lift her head up, keeping her eyes closed. Draco soon realized their lips were close to meeting and he wondered if she somehow knew this too. He sat frozen, debating whether or not to pull away.

Just as it appeared they were about to kiss, Angelic also froze and snapped back expressing an emotion Draco couldn't quite read. Was it anger, hurt or betrayal maybe? "What am I doing?" she muttered to herself. His grey eyes followed Angelic as she wriggled out of his embrace, scrambled over to where her belongings were, gathered them up into her arms and sprinted to her escape. Their eyes connected for a moment more when she reached the first few wooden planks and looked back. "He doesn't care."

Bewilderment concurred Draco's features which neither she, nor anyone else had seen before. This wasn't the time to worry about that though. Angelic turned back and ran away with tears falling down once again. He stared after her wondering what in the world just happened. It didn't take long for him to come to his senses and realise what he'd just gotten himself into. Immediately he stood up and raced across the bridge hoping he wasn't too late. If he was, and he couldn't find her in time, all the restricting he had put himself through in every class for the past three years was for nothing.

He almost tripped over logs and large rocks hurrying down the hill's greyish white stone steps that led to the Hogwarts castle. His journey wasn't long before he spotted Angelic about twenty-five meters ahead, slowing down to prevent her from bumping into other students. To her right, a girl he recognised as Sherakee Belair, Angelic's Ravenclaw muggle-born best friend, also caught sight of her and dashed over, abandoning what looked to be a study group as she did.

"Angie, that you? Hold up!" Sherakee called.

Angelic turned with a startled look that quickly changed to relief at the sight of her friend. She muttered something he couldn't make out and Sherakee expressed a mixed look of concern and confusion in response. The Mudblood then noticed Angelic's hair and began to stare at it mesmerized. That was when Draco remembered something Pansy had told him just over a week ago. No one at Hogwarts had ever seen Angelic with her hair down. According to Parkinson, it was because of trust issues or something, he wasn't really paying attention at the time. But it did explain a lot.

"Y-your hair— it- it's beautiful!" Sherakee stammered.

"Oh, not now Sher, please! Oh no—"

Angelic had scanned the area and saw Draco. Uncharacteristically he looked away, trying to avoid her gaze. While doing this, he became aware of himself catching his breath while stand stationary. After a few seconds he looked up again and saw Sherakee glaring at him.

"C'mon, let's get inside," she said, nudging Angelic in the direction of the castle.

The two ran up to the castle and disappeared up the stone steps. And once again, the girl he had been searching for had gotten away.

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><p><strong>So yeah, it kind of ended abruptly, sorry 'bout that. It was supposed to continue by switching to Angelic's point of view, but I haven't completed that part yet, and probably won't for a while. Consider, this part was two years in the making.. yeah that's how slow I can be lol. ANYWAY, for those who are wondering what 'Voglio solo andare a casa' means, it translates to 'I just want to go home' from Italian. So, I hoped you liked it. If you do want more, just pressure me to continue by saying so in a comment. I guess I'll let you go now.<strong>

**Until next time,**

**Bye-bye!**


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